10:1 ¶ After these things the
Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face
into every city and place, whither he himself would come. 2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest
truly is great, but the
labourers are few: pray ye
therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his
harvest. 3 Go your ways: behold, I send
you forth as lambs among wolves. 4 Carry
neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. 5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first
say, Peace be to this house.
6 And if the son of peace be there, your
peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. 7 And in the same house remain, eating and
drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go
not from house to house. 8 And into
whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set
before you: 9 And heal the sick that are
therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 10 But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they
receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
11 Even the very dust of your city,
which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of
this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you. 12 But I say unto you, that it shall be more
tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city. 13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee,
Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have
been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and
ashes. 14 But it shall be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. 15 And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to
heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell. 16
He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me;
and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.
Underscoring what I
said in my previous comments on the ending of chapter 9 that these verses are
physically applicable to the Jews that Jesus was trying to turn to Him we see
Him send out seventy people in twos to the towns. They are now teaching what
they have been taught, the way the Medieval Waldensians of the Alps would work
to evangelize Europe, two by two, although Jesus ordered these Jews not to go from house to house. He told them to
carry nothing for themselves, that the generosity of people willing to hear
would provide. A house in each town would be enough to sustain them as they
were not to be knocking on doors. If the town rejected them they were to shake
the dust off of their feet. He notes that for those towns it would be better in
the judgment for the pagan cities of Tyre and Sidon than for these Jewish towns.
The final things is that those who hold His messengers in contempt hold Him in
contempt.
Certainly, parallels
and good preaching can be made out of going out to witness for Christ and your
reception and the consequences of rejecting Him. You can even bring up the
suggestion that there are different degrees of suffering in Hell. But, for
understanding of the text let’s stick with the text.
The Jews require a sign
and came into being as a people with signs and wonders.
1Corinthians 1:22a For the
Jews require a sign…
Deuteronomy 4:34 Or hath
God assayed to go and take him
a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs,
and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm,
and by great terrors, according to all that the LORD your God did for you in
Egypt before your eyes?
The kingdom of God is being presented to
these Jews in miraculous healings and preaching. These preachers have nothing
with which to commend themselves in dress, appearance, or provision but only in
their acting as a conduit for Christ’s announcement that the Messiah has
arrived. He has come to save His people from their sins and God’s wrath.
10:17 ¶ And the seventy returned again with joy,
saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. 18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as
lightning fall from heaven. 19 Behold, I
give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are
subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.
21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in
spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou
hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto
babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. 22 All things are delivered to me of my Father:
and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the
Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal him. 23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately,
Blessed are the eyes which see
the things that ye see: 24 For I tell
you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see,
and have not seen them; and to
hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
The seventy’s return
with them proclaiming that even devils, through Christ’s name, had to respond
to their commands is impressive and in keeping with the specificity of these
events to the time involved and the place involved. The triumph of Christ in
open display victorious over Satan involved his fall. Now, let’s not take this
phrase for more than it is, a statement of Satan’s ultimate defeat because he
still runs rule in his domain until his time.
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in
time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Ephesians 6:12 For we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
Jesus tells them to not
rejoice in their presumed power over devils but to rejoice that their future is
in heaven.
Hebrews 12:23 To the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and
to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Jesus confirms here
that the only way to know the Father is through Him. In John’s gospel it is
written.
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me…9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me
hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then,
Shew us the Father?
Jesus states that kings and prophets have desired to know what
these simple people know. They had only their faith and expectation that it was
so. Here, almost two thousand years before Christ, Job, who appears to have
been a king, prince, or ruler of some kind (Job 29:25) said;
Job 19:25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26 And though
after my skin worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh
shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for
myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
Solomon wrote;
Psalm 72:17 His name shall
endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all
nations shall call him blessed.
The prophet Isaiah,
writing at around the time the city of Rome was said to be started, also wrote;
Isaiah 45:17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD
with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world
without end.
Isaiah 59:20 And the
Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in
Jacob, saith the LORD.
And strikingly, God
foretold the free gift of salvation that would be offered to man through
Himself coming as a descendant of Abraham.
Genesis 22:18 And in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my
voice.
There are many passages
in the Old Testament that foretell of the coming Saviour, the Messiah, the Christ,
some clear, some mixed in with other prophecies so that in some cases Christ’s
first and second coming are included in the same verse as we saw in the Luke
4:18,19 reference made by Jesus to Isaiah 61:1,2 with his first and second
advents, thousands of years apart, separated only by a comma in our Bible.
Christ is being
announced among the common people not the rich and powerful. This is His “base,”
so to speak, the average Joe and Josephine, not the powerful movers-and-shakers.
For most of history the common man lived a life of unremitting labor and
poverty ending in sickness and painful death. Child-bearing was often a death
sentence for women and men often could easily die young and leave widows and children.
We have spent a great deal of our effort and money avoiding the suffering that
was our ancestor’s lot in life in many respects. Jesus announced Himself to the
man-in-the-street in these little towns, the people who had no insulation from
the rigors of life and death. Israel is now having the kingdom of God presented
to them for their salvation, an opportunity to receive their Messiah.
The gospel is in one
aspect the poor man’s Magna Carta, his
Declaration of Independence. Because
our God is the supreme king, lawgiver, and judge (Isaiah 33:22) of the universe
neither the oppression of the powers-that-be on earth nor even sickness and death
itself can bind us. The gospel of the kingdom of God is indeed good news, not
just for the Jews, but for all men and women.
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